This Is 40, Admission & Bad Grandpa Movie Reviews

Time to start getting more movies off my “Reviews To Do” list! Since starting this blog, I feel like I must review absolutely every single movie I watch. I’ve put off reviewing some because I just don’t have much to say about them (especially things like throwaway comedies & the occasional chick flick) so I’ll start reviewing movies like these together every now & then. Most movies like these are ones I watched in 2014 so I’m a little behind. But they’re on my list! I gotta do them!!! 😉

So here are three quickies! One was boring, one was okay, and one I really enjoyed.

My Opinion: This is the one that was okay. I watched This Is 40 at least a year ago & remember thinking something along the lines of “I enjoyed that but I better review it quick because I won’t remember much of it in a year”. Ha! It’s true. For example: That annoying Melissa McCarthy was in this? Really?? And I forgot that the even more annoying Megan Fox was in this. Well, I watched this for Paul Rudd. If it had been a different male star, I doubt I’d have bothered.

I have yet to love anything from Judd Apatow. I feel like I should as I suppose I’m the sort of target age range for his stuff? I don’t know… Who here is a huge Apatow fan? What am I missing? Looking at what he’s written and/or directed, I did like The 40 Year-Old Virgin and remember that pretty well even though it’s much older and I only saw it once. This Is 40 is probably my second favorite but considering I only remember certain parts of it a year later doesn’t say much for it, I guess.

I liked Rudd, as always, but this wasn’t exactly my favorite ever character of his. He & Leslie Mann were fine but there was maybe a little too much of the “Oh god! I’m 40 & having a midlife crisis!” thing going on. I liked the family as a whole & they felt like a real-life family. Of course, it probably helps that the kids are the real-life daughters of Apatow & Mann but the Hollywood nepotism thing and Apatow’s insistence on always casting his borderline-annoying wife is, like the characters in This Is 40, getting a little old.

I do remember laughing a few times throughout this movie. It’s not a laugh-out-loud comedy but an observation on our relationships in life and, of course, growing old. It’s much more grown-up than some of Apatow’s other films and I can’t see as many people enjoying it unless they’re approaching or past the big Four-Oh. For the most part, I think this was a pretty well-written film and I liked the different sorts of relationships between the three generations of both Rudd’s & Mann’s families. It’s just a “watch it once and you have no need to watch it again” type of film. I’d only recommend it if you’re a fan of any of the stars or the director AND you’re at least 35.

My Opinion: This is the boring one of these three movies. As you can see, it’s Paul Rudd again and I only watched it because he’s in it. This is one of those damn “dramedy” romance movies. Dramedies sometimes work but this one didn’t have much comedy and I didn’t care enough about Tina Fey’s character to give a shit about her drama. Like This Is 40, this is a more grown-up movie for a slightly older audience but the forced quirkiness of some of the characters and Tina Fey’s uptight Princeton admissions officer just didn’t work for me.

Paul Rudd was his usual adorable, likeable self but I’ll admit he always plays the same character (which is fine if you like him like I do). I’ve never really been a fan of Tina Fey, who also plays her usual self, so I can’t say I liked her character (which isn’t good as she’s the main star & the film centers on her career & relationship struggles). Nat Wolff was in this, who played the slightly annoying friend in The Fault In Our Stars and has the lead role in the next John Green adaptation coming out (Paper Towns, a book I really didn’t like so it’ll be interesting to see if the movie is any better). I did like Lily Tomlin as Fey’s mother and Wallace Shawn had a small role as Fey’s boss. It always gives me warm fuzzies just hearing his distinctive voice… “Inconceivable“! This is one of those movies that just tries too hard to be intelligent & serious and ends up feeling fake & forced. To be fair, romantic dramedy isn’t my favorite genre in the first place but this one just didn’t work for me at all.

My Opinion: Well, damn – I thought this was hilarious. Why am I ashamed to admit that?! I’ve thought all the Jackass movies were a riot. They’re not the sort of movies I’ve ever felt the need to watch more than once but they’re entertaining as hell on a first watch when you don’t know what kind of outrageous stuff to expect. I don’t really get why I like them as, in real life, I hate dumbass guys who do childish, idiotic things. I guess you have to give Johnny Knoxville credit for making a career out of it – he earns way more money than I do!

It was kind of weird at first how they acted out this fictional story of “grandpa & grandson” but I think it worked and, in the end, it was actually sort of sweet in a weird, f*%ked up kind of way. Johnny Knoxville was also in the movie Fun Size with the kid (Jackson Nicoll) and the kid was the best thing about that strange but somewhat enjoyable Nickelodeon movie. This kid cracks me up but I can’t say I’d ever let my kid hang out with any of the Jackass guys… Ha! Talk about bad role models!

Anyway, I never thought I’d find explosive diarrhoea (UK spelling, FYI) or an old man’s testicles funny but what really works in this movie, I guess, is the shocked reactions from the poor bastards they play their pranks on. Looking at photos for this post I was reminded again of the pageant bit… Hahaha! Why do I like these juvenile Jackass movies?!? I should be ashamed. But I’m not!

43 thoughts on “This Is 40, Admission & Bad Grandpa Movie Reviews”

Yes, yes and yes! I thought This is 40 was okay, but I can’t remember anything about it now that it’s been a year since I saw it! Admission bored the pants off me which was really disappointing as I love Tina Fey and Paul Rudd. I expected Bad Grandpa to be too silly but I absolutely loved it 😀
– Allie

That scene in This is 40 when she thinks he’s having an affair but is in fact playing fantasy league football is hilarious. otherwise, nothing too memorable. Judd Apatow was funny in The Larry Sanders Show, but his films are hit and miss for sure.

I found This is 40 reallllyyy long. Was that just me? And incredibly depressing. It had a couple good laughs but I wouldn’t watch it again. Admission was alright, nothing to write home about and I haven’t seen Bad Grandpa. I’ll give it a try one of these days but it’s not really my cup of tea. Great reviews though!

Thanks! Yeah… This Is 40 WAS actually quite long! I remember looking at the running time and not being sure if I could be bothered to watch it. 😉 Yeah, it certainly wasn’t very happy overall… Lol – I know Bad Grandpa really isn’t for everyone. I’d only really recommend it to fans of Jackass! 🙂

Nice reviews! I think Paul Rudd is a very talented actor but these are probably two of his more forgettable films. I really hated This Is 40 in particular, which is in my opinion the worst thing Apatow has ever done. Can’t say I’m a fan of Bad Grandpa either.

I ADORE Tine Fey, but even she couldn’t get me to watch a film with a cover like that. It tells me everything I need to know, and unless they’ve mixed up the artwork of a different film, I’m pretty sure I could outline the whole plot having seen nothing more than this image. It’s a ‘no’ from me.

I loved Bad Grandpa! Saw it at the movie theatre and just died laughing the whole way through. There’s something about it that is just kinda refreshingly different from all of the other comedies out there right now. Great reviews!

Smash! Thanks! 🙂 I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only one who found Bad Grandpa hilarious. Well, some people seem to think I’m nuts… Lol. I don’t care – it was funny when his balls were hanging out! :-p

Great review(s), lady! The only one I’ve come close to watching of these is “This is 40”, and I switched it off because I was rather bored. I should maybe switch it on again at some point. Can’t see myself watching the other two, especially the grandpa one. Haha, just nope.